Apparently My Yard is a Death Trap (Toxic Plants)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last year, we moved into our first home. One of the selling features was the private and beautifully landscaped backyard. I’m not much of a gardener, since I’ve never had much of an opportunity, but I was interested in trying. Besides, most of the yard was established plants that seemed like they would need minimal upkeep.

Another great feature of the yard: it’s fully fenced. This means would could get the dog that apartment living never allowed. In January, we brought home Cooper, a fluffy little miniature poodle.

Cooper is about 6 months old now. He’s starting to get more unsupervised time in the yard to do doggy things, like run around, chase his ball, chew on sticks stolen from the woodpile. Sometimes he gets sent outside when I need to do things, like sweep and mop, where he’d be a nuisance. He’s rarely outside alone for too long, and most of the time we go out with him to play.

It’s also spring, and the lovely plants that attracted us to the house are starting to come alive. I’ve been attempting to identify the many plants I don’t know, and have come to a concerning realization:

A large part of my yard is toxic to dogs.

Here are some of the toxic plants I’ve identified so far. (I’m sure there are many more, since there are still many unidentified plants in the yard, and nearly every time I identify a new plant, it seems to be harmful or deadly)

English Laurel - HUGE hedges that provide the privacy part of the private yard. It’s on all three sides and a good 15 feet tall. I almost doubt it would even be *possible *to remove this - although ours didn’t produce any fruit last year… I wonder if it has something to do with when it was pruned?
*Rhododendron - We have a ton of these, many of them pretty big
Hosta - Lots, but sounds mildly toxic
Hyacinth
Daffodil
*Cyclamen but it shouldn’t be too much trouble to remove these
*Vinca - This stuff is everywhere! Makes great shady ground cover.
Lily-of-the-Valley
*Pieris Japonica (lily-of-the-valley shrub)
Hydrangea
Apple tree
Calla Lily
and likely more…

starred plants where death is specifically mentioned as a symptom

I’m most concerned about the Rhododendron and the Vinca, because there is just so much of it! I have occasionally seen Cooper play tug-of-war with the low hanging branches of one of the largest Rhododendrons, although I’ve never seen him actually chew on it. I am worried he’ll want to play with the flowers when it blooms, though, since he is always trying to pick up fallen Camelliaflowers (thankfully, one non-toxic plant)
I’ve never seen him put the vinca in his mouth at all, but he goes in it all the time (he’s weird and prefers to do his business in the low ground cover, rather than on the grass or dirt)

Tearing out those two plants alone would be overwhelming, adding the rest would leave our yard devastated.

I guess I’m just curious what other people think. Most of these are pretty common plants and I’m sure lots of people with dogs never have a problem. Considering I haven’t actually seen Cooper try to eat them, how worried should I be about these plants?

tl/dr:
Lots of harmful plants in my yard with my dog. How worried should I be?

2

Does your dog actually eat plants, as opposed to playing with the bush or just chewing a stick now and then? I’ve had toxic plants- Snakeroot, Vinca, Lily of the Valley, Lilies, etc out back for years and the two dogs I had never bothered them.

3

My garden and yard are full of Toxic Plants. In all the years I’ve had dogs (which tend to chew various things they find), none have ever been sickened or killed by members of the plant kingdom.

There are obvious hazards to look out for, like cocoa shell mulch (which is like candy to some dogs) but in general I don’t have worries about what’s growing out there.

Give your dog approved items to chew on and warn him away from plants.

4

Plants tend to be toxic! They evolve that way to reduce the chances of being eaten.

I assume a plant is toxic until proven otherwise.

Yes, rocks too.

5

Everybody here has azaleas which are deadly poison to just about everything. I’ve never in my life heard of anybody’s dog being hurt by them.

6

I’ve never seen him intentionally consume a plant. He plays tug-of-war with some plants, which rips off leaves and flowers that then get in his mouth and I worry about him swallowing. He chews on bigger sticks from the wood pile or fallen off the fir tree, and probably eats some of that. He plays in the bushes where I can’t really see what he’s doing. But the only thing I’ve seen him actually appear to eat is grass.
To be honest, I’m not really concerned about the plants that would make him vomit or give him diarrhea if he eats them. An upset tummy is a logical consequence of eating something you shouldn’t. It’s the ones where eating (even accidentally swallowing) a few leaves or petals could kill you. It’s hard to tell if any of these are that kind of plant. For the most part, it’s not clear if death is a consequence of consuming a few leaves or half the plant. He’s only 15 lbs, so it probably wouldn’t take too much of something that was really poisonous.

However, I’m glad to see that I seem to be overreacting. I was kinda expecting some horror stories that would make me want to rip out my whole yard, but this thread has a decent amount of views for not a single person to mention a friend-of-a-friend’s dog’s tragic death.

Jackmannii Thank you for the tip about the cocoa mulch. I do warn him away from plants and he has tons of toys out there, but he still likes play with plants (and rocks, Qadgop the Mercotan, so I try to keep those out of his mouth, as well)

Zsofia: That’s what my husband said. EVERYONE here has rhododendrons, and we’ve never heard of anyone’s dog getting sick from them.

Does any one know of any plants or similar things that really are the “swallow a few leaves and die” kind that I should watch out for?

7

Lilies are poisonous to humans but extremely poisonous to cats anyway. My sisters cat ate an Easter lily leaf and had to be taken to the emergency vet, who said they get a bunch of those cases every year.

8

I don’t know if you get many non native options, but watch out for Oleanders at your local Nursery.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/view-image.htm?index=4&gid=11766

9

Oleander, foxglove (a.k.a. digitalis) and brugmansias/daturas are high on the list of toxic nasties that herbivorous creatures should stay away from.

The only time I recall our present beast getting into ornamental plants was when she was about 8 months old and picked up an expensive potted plant I had just bought. When I raced over and yelled at her to drop it, she decided “what a fun game!” and played keep-away with me for the next few minutes.

The dog was fine, the plant didn’t make it. :frowning: